New Site Aims to Be the All-Female Alternative to Rotten Tomatoes

If you find the roster of critics on Rotten Tomatoes too heavy on writers of the male persuasion, there may soon be an alternative for you. A new site and newsletter launching soon called “CherryPicks” will aggregate only movie reviews from female critics. One of the site’s founders, director Miranda Bailey, had this to say about the new endeavor’s goals (via Indiewire):

For years now, our industry has been proclaiming that we need change to include more minorities and females on both sides of the camera. This would be impossible to do in a speedy fashion, unless we can change the perceived desires of consumers. How can we possibly change what consumers consider good and worthy content if the majority of critics who tell them what to want are predominately older white males?

(I mean, I’m not that old.)

Instead of Rotten Tomatoes’ fresh or rotten ratings system, CherryPicks’ rating will have four tiers:

Bowl of Cherries: Great. Must see.
Pair of Cherries: Good. Recommended.
Single Cherry: Mixed. You might like it, you might not.
The Pits: Self-explanatory.

This sounds somewhat confusing. Thumbs up or down ratings (or very easy to understand zero to four or five stars) tend to resonate more with mainstream moviegoers. I like the pits part, though.

CherryPicks will initially launch with an email newsletter that will “spotlight women in criticism and female perspectives on media” but they hope to expand from there into a full site with original content including their own “podcasts, reviews, Top 10 lists, and interviews.” Indiewire’s article doesn’t mention a launch date for any of this and at the moment CherryPicks.com directs you to a tech site of some kind. But stay tuned.